The Bush administration has taken an unexpected lead in creating policies apparently
aimed at decreasing world poverty, pushing the World Bank to convert 45% of its loans
to poor countries into grants and the G7 nations to support debt forgiveness for many of
the world’s poorest countries. These actions, aimed at remolding the international
development system, are integral to the Bush administration’s foreign policy. They
believe their new system of performance-based grants will increase their regulatory grip
over developing countries. They are also concerned with sub-Saharan Africa, which they
see as a potential hotbed of terrorism, due to its widespread, debt-induced poverty. They
believe that the combination of debt forgiveness and grants will contribute to stabilizing
this region, while strengthening the legitimacy of both neoliberalism and the “war on
terror”.